Tuesday, February 28, 2012

I always thought that one would have to look far and wide to find a so-called political commentator inferior in intellectual capacity or credibility to Antony Loewenstein.

However, on reading this effort from a Michael Brull in the ABC's Drum, I think I've found someone who can truly take his place next to Loewenstein and appear as an intellectual pygmy beside him - Iran, Israel and the west: some home truths.

Mr Rotem reserved his strongest words for Fiona Byrne, the former mayor of Marrickville in inner-western Sydney, whose position on the BDS was widely credited with costing her a seat in state parliament for the Greens. Marrickville Council adopted BDS as official policy under Ms Byrne, but abandoned it a few months later following public condemnation.

"The candidate for Marrickville, Fiona Byrne, tripped over herself in many public statements, confused that her Utopian vision of a world with a weakened Israel was poorly received outside the confines of her urban hamlet," Mr Rotem said.

Friday, February 24, 2012

When routine Israel basher Norman Finkelstein says he loathes the BDS movement's duplicity and disingenuousness in hiding the fact that a large part of its membership "wants to eliminate Israel" then you know that the Israel Apartheid Week crowd is being exposed for exactly the sham that it is:

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Legendary for regularly placing his foot in his mouth, Robert Fisk made a complete idiot of himself with this comment to ABC1's Kerrie O'Brien on Monday's Four Corners on the subject of the Butcher of Damascus, now suddenly out of favour with most of the pundits of the pseudo left:-

YOU see, the problem is, on the one hand, the two nations that are the most frightened of losing Bashar al-Assad: one is Iran, because the destruction of Assad's Syria is a sword in the heart of Iran, its greatest ally, and the other country is Israel, because the Israelis are constantly saying, "Well, we don't like Bashar, but we're frightened of what will happen afterwards."Israeli Foreign Minister

Avigdor Lieberman on June 15, 2011:

I THINK for everybody who saw in the last week on the TV screens the repression and the atrocities, the conclusion is very simple and very clear: President Assad must resign as soon as possible, and it's despite all our bilateral relations with Syria. For everybody who respects human rights and democratic values, it's really unacceptable what we see today in Syria We are worried about the innocent people who are suffering . . . it's a very bad sign and a very bad message if this regime and if this president will survive and if he will succeed in suppressing these protests.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

I have no sympathy for Khader Adnan or his hunger strike (''Hunger striker shines light on Israeli detention policy'', February 20).He is no innocent accidentally swept up by the Israeli military court system but a longstanding, active senior Islamic Jihad leader committed to both the destruction of Israel and an extreme theocracy for the Palestinians.

On June 10, 2005, Associated Press called him "a top Islamic Jihad leader" advocating on behalf of two comrades who had been jailed by the Palestinian Authority for their part in a suicide bombing in Israel. Two weeks later in a West Bank rally he denounced the Palestinian Authority's call for Islamic Jihad to disarm.

In September 2010 the Palestinian Authority arrested Adnan and on this occasion too he began a hunger strike.That Adnan is reportedly near death on a hunger strike in an Israeli jail is a tragic waste of a life but, like his support for extremism, is his choice.

Adnan is not some romantic freedom fighter but a senior member of a ruthless terrorist organisation whose complaints about the judicial treatment such criminal activity entails ring hollow.

Mark Kessel Caulfield North

As a person born of Jewish refugee parents who had to flee racist oppression in Germany I am horrified at Israel's blatant denial of human and legal rights to the Palestinians in the illegally occupied territories. Australia should protest in the strongest terms at the treatment of Palestinians there and the use of administrative detention to circumvent normal legal procedures. Mr Adnan's hunger strike will hopefully awaken the conscience of the world.

Ron Witton Austinmer

Thanks Ron but after reading more about this Adnan character, I think you're a very sadly misguided soul.

"Gays threaten the continuation of the human race, Libya’s delegate told a planning meeting of the UN Human Rights Council today, reported the Geneva-based UN Watch monitoring group. It was the first appearance in the 47-nation body by the post-Gaddafi government, whose membership was restored in November following Libya’s suspension in March."

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

In the book The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, political scientists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt introduced ancient anti-semitic slurs about Jewish power into the modern discourse, suggesting that a mysterious cabal of Jewish groups were somehow responsible for every US foreign policy blunder.

With that in mind, I was dismayed to read Robert Kaplan’s “Great power politics ” (Review, February 10) saying that the “real tragedy” of this is that it would threaten “to obscure the urgent and enduring message of Mearsheimer’s life’s work”. This is absolutely incorrect, the real tragedy of the incident is that it no longer raises an eyebrow when a widely read columnist can suggest that the “Jewish Lobby” is keeping Australia in Iraq; or that Mearsheimer can endorse a Holocaust revisionist such as author Gil Atzmon and still be credited as a serious political scientist. Averting tragedy does not require listening to Mearsheimer’s views on China, it requires ridding him of his academic recognition and throwing him into the cesspit where he belongs.

Monday, February 13, 2012

"Hamas would never acknowledge the Israeli state, said Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian movement in Gaza, on Friday in Tehran."

Haniyeh is not just "the leader of the Palestinian movement in Gaza". He is a partner in the Palestinian unity government with Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas who steadfastly refuses to recognise Israel as a Jewish State.

So whatever view one might have about the occupation, settlements and settlement building, it is abundantly clear that these are no longer issues in the conflict.

The occupation is now irrelevant insofar as the matter of attaining peace is concerned.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

IRAN'S Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pledges to confront and defeat the ''cancerous tumour'' of Israel (World, 5/2) and international concern grows of a pre-emptive Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear installations. While the US and other countries urge Israel to wait for the effects of tough sanctions on Iran to be felt, it must be realised that we're discussing the survival of a people and a country.

It seems nobody but the Jews learn from history. Do the leaders of the international coalition forget the killing of 6 million Jews in Europe during World War II came about due to ''waiting'' and because the Allied leaders of the time took too long to confront Hitler and the Nazi Party?

Iran plans to wipe Israel off the map when equipped to do so. Which country in the world would countenance the prospect of obliteration by waiting until it happened? Even pacifists would fight for their lives if their backs were to the wall.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Whatever it is, the imebeciles at a group named "Students for Palestine" must be on some scary stuff to have even thought of picketing Jewish worshippers praying on their Sabbath at, of all places, a synagogue in suburban Ripponlea.

After being alterted to the crass stupidity of their protest, they gave up on that idea and decided they would picket another venue associated with mining magnate Joseph Gutnick which is used for Jewish religious and teaching purposes - Activists abandon Sabbath protest.

Judging from some of the names associated with SOP, it would be a fair guess that one or two of the protesters might be Jewish which suggests that these nutbags should have known better when selecting their targets.

"Galloway has for many years carried on close contacts with dictators and extremist elements in the Arab world. In the late 1990s, he was closely linked with Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, the Assad regime in Syria, Hamas in Gaza and the Iranian regime.

"In July 2011, at a time when Assad was perpetrating massacres of his own people, Galloway was interviewed on Hezbollah's al-Manar network, where he heaped praises on the Syrian president."

In 2010, Fairfax journalist Paul McGeough was awarded a Walkley award for journalism for his coverage of the flotillas and in particular of the deaths of nine Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara which was part of the Gaza-bound that year.

Critics of the articles pointed out that McGeough's one-sided pieces were not journalism but propaganda supporting the agitators on the ship who provoked the deadly confrontation with the IDF. The award winning reports were based almost solely on so called "eye witness" accounts from fellow passengers on the flotilla and ignored the fact that most of the provocateurs were members of an Islamist terrorist group, some of who had indicated prior to the voyage that they intended to do violence.

Of course, these fresh revelations connecting the organisers of the flotilla, already associated with terror groups Hamas and the Turkish IHH, with the butcher Assad are unlikely to be aired in the Fairfax press as it will only further highlight its already questionable stance over the original incident which was largely discredited in the wake of last year's Palmer Report that supported the Israeli version of the events.

Saturday, February 04, 2012

According to elderof ziyon not even the leadership of Hamas can take Fatah led by Mahmoud Abbas seriously.

"Khalil al-Hayya, head of Hamas' political party "Change and Reform," has called on Hamas to re-evaluate the unity agreement with Fatah in light of Fatah's postponement of a meeting meant to create a framework for negotiations."

Sound familiar?

Abbas presides over a corrupt Fatah and a dysfunctional Palestine Authority. His underling Erekat does a lot of talking but most of the time he's resigning his position, postponing meetings, walking out of them or simply not bothering to turn up.

He does it because he knows there are enough sock puppets in the mainstream media who will give him, and the thugs he works with, the credibility and a megaphone to get across his crooked message.

Nothing about the intransigence of the Palestinian negotiating team, nothing of the racism and incitement on PA media - just the usual attack on the Israelis while those who laud the animals who slit the throats of babies are held blameless.

The sincerity and good faith (or lack thereof) of the PA is best judged by the messages Abbas and his own people send while the peace talks are occurring.

When Saeb Erekat who once told the BBC that hundreds maybe thousands of civilians had been killed in the battles in the Jenin refugee camp (actual civilian toll - 11) was refusing to come to meetings during the talks, the mufti of Jerusalem was prominent in the official PA media talking about killing Jews and a weekly television show dedicated to Palestinian prisoners in Israel, praised the convicted perpetrator of a murderous attack on a five members of a sleeping family who slit the throat of a months old infant as a 'hero and legend.' - Palestinian TV airs show praising Fogel family murderer.

And, as sure as night follows day, the Palestinian propaganda arm will ignore all of this and when it picks up this story in a few days' time, one of its spinmeisters will focus on blaming Israel and the settlements for everything.